Naoto Shirogane
Naoto is a character from the Persona series of games, specifically Persona 4 and Persona 4 Arena. The player currently playing Naoto got her on March 30th, 2011, and has been playing her since. Background Naoto comes from a family literally full of detectives; both parents were detectives, and grandfather was a renowned detective that took Naoto in after both of Naoto's parents were killed during one of their investigations. From both parents and grandfather, Naoto learned to be a detective, as well as of the legacy of the Shirogane name. During the events of Persona 4, Naoto is called in to assist with a string of mysterious disappearances and murders that baffle the local law enforcement. Although arriving on the scene quite late in the game and investigation, Naoto quickly deduces what took months for the Inaba police, and even narrows the suspects down. Unfortunately, Naoto initially has no knowledge of the TV World, Personae, Shadows, or anything else surrounding what is truly going on in Inaba, so hits a brick wall. Along the way, Naoto meets the protagonists party, which initially thought Naoto was simply interested in Kanji when in reality Naoto was questioning Kanji to get more information about the happenings in Inaba, and to narrow down the suspect list. Eventually, like several others before, Naoto is whisked into the TV world by the unseen and unknown kidnapper, and is forced to face everything which was too unbearable to face. Upon finding Naoto, the protagonist's party also find Naoto's shadow, and in a rather dramatic reveal, also discover that Naoto is female. Naoto's shadow, which is a reflection of her suppressed and hidden self, not only reveals that Naoto harbored thoughts of wanting to be male, but desperately sought to be as mature as possible, despite herself, simply so she could be accepted for her talents and ability to help people. Shunned by her coworkers for being young, and by society for trying to be both a woman and detective, Naoto had created an androgynous identity for herself, and never let on her true gender to anyone in fear that she would not be taken seriously. Denying all of these truths, Naoto incites her shadow - who at first appeared as a male in an over-sized labcoat in the middle of a sex-change procedure - to transform into a partially robotic, flying humanoid monster with toy weapons. The protagonist's party end up defeating the shadow, which causes it to revert to it's initial form. Naoto eventually realizes that she did not actually want to be a man, but simply wanted to find her true self, accepts the shadow and what it stood for as part of herself, this transforming the shadow into her very own Persona. With newfound resolve, and a new understanding of what was truly happening in Inaba, Naoto's skills as a detective is pivotal in aiding the protagonist and his party in solving the mystery of who was behind the murders and disappearances, and ultimately helps to save Inaba, and the entire world, from the horrors that were spawned from humanity's desire for superficiality and subjectivity. Along the way, Naoto learns the importance of relying on the perspectives of others, being able to accept her own childishness, and even how to love; the latter came about when she was part of a brief romance with Yu Narukami, the protagonist. Two months after the group finally puts an end to the world-threatening ordeal, and Yu moves back home, Naoto is contacted by the Japanese Self Defense Force in order to investigate a woman named Mitsuru Kirijo and the mysterious government-backed shadow organization known as the Shadow Operatives. Naoto is handpicked for the case due to her skill as a detective and her unique experience with Personae and Shadows and is to unearth an alleged dark secret being kept under wraps by Kirijo and her Shadow extermination group. Initially, Naoto is planted as part of an escort assigned to a plane carrying cargo vital to the Shadow Operatives. During the unloading process, the plane is hijacked and the critical cargo disappears; Naoto notices a supicious van during the commotion, manages to plant a trasmitter on it, and manages to track it to Inaba. Despite Mitsuru's dismissal of Naoto from the case, the detective decides to continue her investigation. The day after the hijacking, she is brought to where the Misturu and her closest associates have tracked the cargo, watching as the three of them enter the TV world. Naoto follows them, and finds herself part of the strange fighting tournament that had just started on the other side in a warped version of Inaba's High School. Naoto runs into both members of the Shadow Operatives and the old Investigation Team, defeating several of them in order to learn more about what is going on and progress farther into the bracket. Although she is able to beat Mitsuru, and ultimately learn that the "cargo" they had been chasing was an Anti-Shadow Supression Android named Labrys, she is finally defeated by Yu in the "semi-finals." All of the combatants defeated found themselves trapped in the room where they were beaten, and Naoto was no exception to this, but it wasn't long before Yu managed to "win" the tournament and tear down the barriers. With Mitsuru's help, Naoto is able to locate and get into contact with Rise, who was being held in the announcement room, the very same place from where a fake Teddie was running the tournament and manipulating its participants. The fake Teddie in question is revealed to be Labrys' Shadow. Naoto contacts the others on her way to the announcement room, and is one of the first to arrive. She and the rest of the members of the Investigation Team watch as Yu - who had just defeated Labrys' Shadow - fighting a strange woman in blue reminiscant of Margaret, a resident of the Velvet Room. Although Yu seemed to be on the losing side of the rather heated duo, he eventually notices his friends collected behind him and cheering him on, which leads him to draw upon the full extent of his powers and defeat the woman, who is revealed to be Elizabeth. Mitsuru's group arrived shortly thereafter, and with everyone accounted for and rescued, the assembled group heads to the roof of the high school to leave the TV world. Unfortunately, when they reach the roof, Labrys is suddenly forced to fight her Shadow again, which should have been impossible due to the fact that Labrys had just accepted her Shadow and obtained a Persona. Naoto deduces that whoever is controlling the fake shadow is the real culprit behind the whole ordeal, and upon pointing it out, said culprit takes control of Labrys. After a large amount of gloating, the culprit revealed his/her true scheme: force the members of the Investigation Team and Shadow Operatives to fight against their friends, hopefully breaking their bonds and pushing them to a point of diress where their Personae would revert back to Shadows. As the plan went, the mastermind would then recruit the reborn Shadows (which would be a lot more powerful than their Pre-Persona selves) in a bid to control both the TV World and the real world. His/her plan thwarted, the culprit releases their hold on Labrys, and fades away with an ominous message. The assembled team retires for the day, and the next morning says its goodbyes. During the larger group goodbyes continues, Mitsuru pulled Naoto aside to give the younger group her blessing, which initially confuses Naoto somewhat. Shortly thereafter Mitsuru and her friends depart, however, Naoto's suspicions are confirmed when Yu and Yosuke officially announce the reforming of the Investigation Team, who is going to assist the Shadow Operatives expose and put an end to the mastermind behind everything they had just been through. Later on, Naoto finishes her report on the Shadow Operatives and in it indicates that although Mitsuru herself is not a threat - and in fact is trying to attone for her family's past sins - the Kirijo Group at large has secrets that Mitsuru herself does not know... and personnel that may not share Mitsuru's ideals. Involvement Naoto entered the Multiverse by waking up on the Moon along with Kanji Tatsumi. They were soon greeted by Cirno and Minato, the latter of which was another Persona-User. The group fought against Dracula in the Sea of Moondust, ultimately forcing the vampire to flee. After a short interrogation of everyone present to ascertain where they were and the nature of the multiverse, Naoto and Kanji made their way to the Tower of Twilight. Deciding that the Tower of Twilight was a wellspring of information and new contacts, Naoto sticks around there for quite some time. Later on, she learns of the opening of a new establishment in the Multiverse Mall and showed up at the grand opening of Deadpool & Dante's Viewtiful Bar & Grill. Her attempts to mingle and learn more about the bar's owners took a rather awkward turn when she was kissed by Yuriko, leading her to quickly excuse herself for the night due to her embarassment. Rarely one to lose her cool, or be the target of such aggressive affection, Naoto spent the rest of her night recounting what had gone on, and how she felt about it. A month or so into her time in the multiverse, Naoto enrolled into Multiverse Garden's SeeD program and convinced Kanji to join with her, although the boy's adoration of Zack Fair and overall outlook on life and fighting led him to join the SOLDIER program instead. During her initial months as a Garden student, Naoto was part of an investigation into the sudden appearance of the Terra Cluster during the Terra Stabilization arc; after the worlds were stablized, she was assigned to an interplanetary drug trafficking case, which led her to aid the Los Santos Police Department on Gangster Earth. During the Clone Arc, Naoto helped Garden begin to piece together what was happening after a lab was discovered in their own backyard of Radiant Garden, but her attention was pulled back to the Tower of Twilight when a string of mysterious attacks began to surface around the fortress, leading her to meet both Rock Light and Mami Tomoe during her investigations. She originally suspected these attacks were all part of the same plot; however, they turned out to be a dead end, and by the time Naoto got back on the proper trail, the Jurassic Wasteland event was winding down and the true culprits (and their secret base) were ascertained. After Garden merged with the Altruistic Valorians and Lunar Shield to form the Celestial Guardians, the school's faculty realized the importance of having a segment of its students and teachers specialize in criminal law and investigations. Working closely with Optimus Prime and the other officers of the Shield, a new department was formed within Garden, and Naoto was assigned as its flagship student. Due to the new department being overseen ultimately by Lunar Shield personnell, Naoto officially transferred her membership to that faction, but continued to still live in the main Garden campus in Midgar on Gaia and take classes there. After her tenure as a Criminal Justice student began, Naoto helped Sita Vilosa with her girlfriend troubles, and then helped the girl and her freinds get enrolled in the school along with Aqua. Her impromptu duties as an enrollment liason didn't end there as the arrival of Yu Nurakami and Kotone Shiomi - and her friendships with them - led her to encourage both of them to also enroll in Garden. Based on her prior experience on the front lines of strange multiversal phenomena, Naoto was assigned - along with Sita - to investigate a strange storm surrounding Twilight Town, which was part of a larger series unnatural storms that plagued the multiverse. Joined by Irelia and Robin, they were to also help the local militia and put an end to whatever or whoever had caused the storm. Sita and Naoto met once more during the investigation into Deadpool during The Wylfred Thing, where Sita had been bribed to distract Naoto from the investigation. Powers and Capabilities Being an actual badged officer and detective, Naoto is trained in standard small fire arms, and always prefers to carry a pistol or revolver of some type. Although not physically imposing, Naoto is very fit, and is able to pull off basic close combat techniques quite well, including powerful kicks that are capable of knocking over even the largest of foes. Above all other natural talents, Naoto is quite intelligent, resourceful, and has a powerful capacity for deduction and investigation skills, usually able to discern truth from lies, and able to piece together seemingly unconnected pieces of information or evidence into a bigger plot. Naoto also has the unique power to invoke a Persona, which is a physical and mystical manifestation of Naoto's true personality and psyche. Naoto's particular Personae have posses powerful physical attacks, light attacks, dark attacks, and even almighty-based attacks. Naoto's persona is armed with a beam-sword, and is quite small and fast, making it quite the tricky opponent in battle if ever fought directly. Quotes * "Why is this so tight?" - Naoto to Sita Vilosa * "It would not be wise to be... impulsive in front of so many strangers." - Naoto to Yuriko Trivia * Though looking rather boyish, Naoto is secretly very well endowed, taping her chest to hide her true appearance. * She has some experience playing the piano. See also External links * Shirogane Study (Storage Topic)